The most popular brands on Google+ are slowly becoming more consumer focused

Since launching its Pages product for businesses last November, Google+ has tried to get mainstream brands to adopt the platform. Up until recently, the most popular brands on Google+ happened to be owned by the company itself, which wasn’t a very good sign of adoption.

It looks like brands were just waiting to see how things went with Google’s social network, as a recent study by analytics firm Simply Measured shows that some of the world’s biggest brands are now ruling the plus-waves.

The study, which focuses solely on the top brands using pages on Google+, gives us a glimpse into how Google will be able to reel in more advertisers and brands to use its social platform, as the engagement numbers are rather impressive.

The top categories of brands on Google+ still show a slight shift towards geekiness, but beverages, apparel, and restaurants are surging.

Based on how many times a brand has been circled, here are the top companies using Google+:

A deeper dive by Simply Measured shows that the companies who are doing the best on the platform are the ones who are posting interesting and interactive content. The best way to get attention on any public social network is to share interesting things:

The number one brand according to this report is H&M, which is enjoying increased consumer attention since its Super Bowl ad featuring a scantily clad David Beckham. If you visit the brand’s Google+ page, you’ll see that they leverage its visual content extremely well, which makes sense considering H&M is a fashion company:

You can read through Simply Measured’s entire report at your leisure, but what I’ve learned from pouring over this data as well as my own experience on the platform is that the mainstream appeal for Google+ is starting to see an upward turn. This is a moment that brands can still get in on the ground floor with Google+ and become dominating companies on the platform.

We told you way back in November that it was a no-brainer to get your brand on Google+, tell us in the comments how it’s going for you!

Drew Olanoff was The Next Web's West Coast Editor. He coined the phrase "Social Good" and invented the "donation by action" model for online charitable movements. He founded #BlameDrewsCancer. You can follow him on Twitter, Google+, Facebook, or email drew@thenextweb.com